Search form

You are here

Monsanto

MEPs have rubber-stamped controversial rules permitting EU member states to decide themselves whether to allow the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops, which are currently grown in only five EU countries.

Monsanto said on Wednesday (17 July) it would withdraw all pending approval requests to grow new types of genetically modified crops in the European Union, due to the lack of commercial prospects for cultivation there.

SPECIAL REPORT / Groups campaigning to ban genetically modified foods in Europe have jumped on the recent discovery of unauthorised GM strain of wheat on an American farm as vindication of their longstanding campaign to banish biotech crops from the EU.

The European Food Safety Authority on Thursday (4 October) rebuked a French biologist’s study that questions the safety of Monsanto’s genetically modified maize and Roundup herbicide, saying in a preliminary report that the research was “of insufficient scientific quality.”

Insecticides present in one of Europe’s most controversial genetically modified crops, MON810 maize, may be harmful to humans, French and German researchers say in a new study that could pour fuel over calls asking to limit such plants in the EU.

European farmers are likely to fall behind in the competitive world grain market as EU consumer hostility to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) drives away research and prevents cultivation of high-yield and pest-resistant crops.